


like a flash before our eyes we're already into the night

by Del (goddessdel)



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Almost-linear, Eleven's POV, F/M, Fluffy, PWP, Stormcage nights, and a bit kinky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-30 05:20:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1014605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddessdel/pseuds/Del
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The seam of light as the TARDIS door closed had only just faded as the guards came into view. They eyed River's empty cell suspiciously - there was no sign of their prisoner. "Doctor Song," one guard called out, tentatively hopeful.</p>
<p>They waited a beat and then the other sighed and moved toward the alarm on the adjacent wall. "Oh come on - she just got back this morning!"</p>
<p>The harsh blare of the alarm and frantic scrambling of the guards fell away to silence at the edge of the TARDIS, where she was parked right in front of the guards, securely cloaked in a perception filter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like a flash before our eyes we're already into the night

**Author's Note:**

> Written: 3/31/13 - 10/19/13 (it was just a little unfulfilled PWP plot bunny for far too long).
> 
> Thanks to Becs and Megs for reading this over, as always! All remaining errors are my own.
> 
> Title from "Stay Awake" by Ellie Goulding.
> 
> _Dorium Maldovar: And Doctor Song? In prison all her days?_  
>  The Doctor: Her days, yes. Her nights... well, that's between her and me, eh?  
> -The Wedding of River Song 

He visited her every night in prison. He checked. Sometimes he even went twice. Just to be sure.

 

Oh, they had plenty of adventures - alone and together - in the meantime. Sometimes he stole her away for weeks in a night. Sometimes they never made it out of Stormcage - sonicing the cameras or ensconced in the cloaked TARDIS - too impatient to even get to the vortex.

 

Some nights she wasn't there. Off on adventures with another him that ran over unexpectedly. He always made sure - popping ahead each night until one day she would inevitably reappear, sitting on her bunk as casual as always. Once she had returned he would diligently mark down where she'd been against his diary, shoving aside that purposefully unnamed tension that plagued him in her absence.

 

Sometimes one or both of them were just rushing in from another adventure - often with another version of themselves.

 

Just once, they found themselves back from the same trip. The shock of staying so linear was enough excitement that they barely made it to the TARDIS at all - guards be damned.

 

...

 

"I'm just back from Persia Nine," River glanced up from where she sat cross-legged on her bunk, clearly still finishing her diary entry.

 

The Doctor's heart leapt to his throat. "When?"

 

"This morning. I had to tidy up a bit: clear the alarms, listen to the guards whinge about how I really must stop escaping so often - ruining their reputation, apparently, the poor dears - all the usual." She snapped her diary shut and finally focused her attention on him with a wicked little smirk.

 

The Doctor was positively giddy, clapping his hands and pointing between them. "I just left Persia Nine six hours ago. Took a bit to get everyone settled in again. You," he sidled closer, gaze intent, "owe me four hours, River Song."

 

River looked almost light-headed at the prospect. "Four hours."

 

It was unimaginable. It was mad and impossible and thrilling.

 

The Doctor's voice came out low, and River's eyes darkened as he crowded her. "How are you going to make them up to me, eh?"

 

River pushed him back before he even finished speaking. He stumbled until he hit the cloaked TARDIS, blinking at her as she quickly stripped him of his trousers and pants and dropped to her knees. "I have some ideas."

 

Whatever cheeky reply the Doctor imagined escaped him as she put her hands on him. The Doctor groaned his acquiescence, his hearts eagerly rushing all his blood, straining toward River.

 

River's ideas were always brilliant.

 

She stroked him with a maddening slowness until he forced his eyes open to glare at her. River kept her eyes locked with his as she leaned forward and licked him from root to tip, following the path of her hands.

 

The Doctor's fingers dug into the paneling of the TARDIS.

 

"I've been wanting to do this all day," River smirked and took him in her mouth.

 

The very thought made him impossibly harder. The same day - they'd both been waiting the same day, suffering under the same pressing need for one another. They had been caught, waiting, between the two opposing armies, looking for an opening to get out or through. They never had been any good at waiting, either of them. And sex had seemed preferable to boredom or getting shot. But it had done little to quench their thirst for one another when said armies had burst in considerably ahead of schedule.

 

He bit his lip to keep from thrusting into the blissful wet heat of her mouth as River continued to tease with a languid pace, pausing to run her tongue in sinuous swirls over him. Her hands were busy, one braced against his thigh while the other trailed down to graze nails over the sensitive flesh of his balls.

 

The Doctor could not help the moan that slipped out, all his considerable higher-order cognitive powers derailed by River's mouth and hands.

 

She pinched his thigh, hard. The Doctor yelped, eyes flying open to meet her glower as she pulled back. "Quiet," River admonished firmly.

 

"Sorry, sorry," the Doctor hissed out in a low whisper, hands reaching desperately for her.

 

River sat back on her heels, eyeing him. "You will be, if the guards catch us with your pants round your ankles again."

 

"That was not my fault," he huffed. River simply arched one eyebrow and waited. "Right. Quiet. I can manage that." Under his breath he added, "Unlike some people."

 

River licked her lips and leaned forward, her hot breath blowing across him. "Keep talking, sweetie. You're putting yourself in my hands."

 

He couldn't resist any longer - he tucked a stray curl behind River's ear, lingering to brush his thumb over her cheeks and lip. "I always do."

 

She smiled at him, genuine and soft, her cheek nuzzling his palm briefly. "Then hush."

 

The Doctor nodded, miming zipping his lips shut with a wink, his other hand finding its way to her hair. He never tired of the mystery surrounding her curls - each dynamic and unique. He could spend the rest of his long life memorizing River's body (and oh, how he planned to), but her curls would always be a surprise.

 

River rolled her eyes at him, but she finally put him out of his misery, leaning forward again and wrapping her tongue around his cock.

 

She wasn't teasing anymore. River swallowed him down, tortuously slow, humming. The Doctor fisted his hand in her hair to keep it out of her way, while his other hand clenched against the TARDIS doors. His blood was pounding in his ears, a steady tap-tap, tap-tap.

 

A ragged, pleading sound escaped him despite his best efforts at keeping quiet. River responded by switching to a brisk pace that made his eyes roll back in his head as he watched her mouth slide over him in a hot wet suck of pleasure.

 

Her hands danced across his skin, feather-light strokes that set his nerve-endings alight. The pleasure and heat was coalescing low into a tight ball of need, and her tongue swirled around his cock as she bobbed up and down in a steady, maddening rhythm.

 

The tap-tap tapping was ringing in his ears again, only the Doctor realized a few seconds too slow that it was out of sync with the throbbing of his pulse. It was almost impossible to think, but thankfully some remaining 10% of his brain was always racing ahead, even if all his conscious thoughts were lost in a haze of pleasure.

 

There was significant precedent for River distracting him at inopportune times. The Doctor thumped his head back against the TARDIS, biting back another groan and trying to clear his ears.

 

Soft footsteps. Moving closer.

 

The guards were returning from their rounds to check that River was still tucked into her cell. "River," but he was helpless to do much more than gasp out her name, all his focus occupied by his wife and her talented mouth.

 

River pulled back long enough to hiss, "Door, sweetie," and then she took him back into her mouth, her rhythm steady but speeding up, and her hands finding all the spots that made him whimper.

 

The Doctor fumbled behind him blindly with his free hand, searching the invisible TARDIS for the handle, while his other hand clenched in River's hair with her movements - either pulling her back or urging her on, even he couldn't tell. "You have to - River - guards, River!"

 

But River had no intention of stopping. She'd find the danger an added thrill, and she knew he would as well. He could feel her smiling, her tongue pressing hard against the underside of his cock. His balls tightened and he knew there was no point trying to stop her now. The Doctor forced his eyes open, finding River's, watching the slide of her lips stretched across his cock as she took him completely in her mouth, the muscles of her throat working against his sensitive head.

 

The Doctor came with a muffled grunt just as his hand found the door handle. He kept enough presence of mind to push against it as River swallowed and released him with a pop.

 

River leapt to her feet and shoved them both inside, slamming the door before the guards could pass by the front of her cell.

 

The Doctor spun River around the second the door closed and pressed her into it just as she had done to him. She was grinning at him, eyes dark and lips swollen, and looking entirely justifiably pleased with herself.

 

He ran one hand down her body, pausing to tug up the edge of her cotton vest and trace his fingers over the soft skin it revealed. River shivered. "My bad girl. Did you enjoy that?"

 

River ogled him blatantly. "Not half as much as you did, Doctor."

 

"Let's fix that, shall we?" He slipped his hands under her shirt, running them up along her waist and ribs, palms grazing over her breasts as she obligingly raised her arms and he slid her top off.

 

River's hands came to rest at the hem of his shirt. She tugged at it with a raised eyebrow. Her pointed glance reminded the Doctor that he was already half undressed in the most immodest sense. He flushed red despite himself.

 

Ready to rectify that situation, River's clever hands immediately moved to pop his buttons open, but the Doctor caught her wrists before she could. "You forgot something very important, Doctor Song."

 

Brow furled with thinly veiled impatience, River queried, "Did I now?"

 

The Doctor tilted her chin up. His lips ghosted across hers until they parted, his tongue darting across to tease her own. River buried her hands in his hair and tugged him closer, deepening the kiss, her tongue demanding against his own. They parted only for breath, and only then begrudgingly.

 

The universe  - all the ticking clocks and diverging timelines and rotating planets - fell away when they kissed. They could have been anywhere or anywhen in that moment. The Doctor smiled. "Hello." The word was barely a breath between them.

 

River's answering smile was brilliant. "Hello, sweetie."

 

The Doctor ran his hands down River's body until he could hook his thumbs under her knickers and drag them and her joggers down her thighs. River's hands slid down his neck to work at his bowtie as she wiggled her bottoms down to her feet.

 

He let River finish undressing him only because she wouldn't pull her arms away long enough for him to divest her of her sports bra. Instead, he shoved the material up, palming her breasts and brushing his thumbs across her nipples.

  
River shivered but was not deterred. She finished with his buttons and shoved his shirt back off his shoulders, her fingers grazing his skin in glancing passes that burned hot despite their brevity. He wasn't about to pull back long enough for her to get at his cuffs, too busy palming the full weight of her breasts in his hands.

 

River arched up on her tiptoes and brushed her bare skin against his, her teeth closing neatly over his shoulder. The pain flared up sharp against surprisingly sensitive skin, and the Doctor yelped in surprise. She had done that this morning, sinking her teeth into his skin to keep from screaming out her release.

 

The memory washed the pain into hot sparks of pleasure. He could feel his cock hardening already, his double-circulatory system suddenly working overtime to recover.

 

Their hands were all over each other then, stripping off the last of their clothing. Seeking out all the bruises and marks they'd just left and recreating them with a burning desperation.

 

One or both of them almost always bore faded marks that the other might remember from a too eager grip (or _spoilers_ ), but this was different. These were fresh marks, just left, not even hardly healed. They were bookends, a matched set, just this once.

 

The Doctor's mouth was immediately drawn to River's breasts, passing over the bites and welts that adorned them and sucking until the color was an angry bruise. He worried his teeth over one nipple until it was raw and River was making those needy, whimpering sounds he so loved. He pulled back to blow across the sensitive bud, watching River's heavy-lidded expression, before he wrapped his tongue around it and sucked her nipple back into his mouth.

 

River's hands scraped across his shoulders and fisted in his hair, demanding, but he released that breast only to slide his mouth to the other, repeating his motions until they were a matched set. River moaned, her voice low and pleading, "Doctor."

 

He grinned against her skin, but took his time, his hands sliding across her ribs and waist, hips and arse, fingers pressing in to match the bruises he remembered from the morning.

 

One of River's hands released his hair, wiggling between them to slide down her own body. The Doctor caught her hand before it could reach between her legs, batting it away. River made a soft, encouraging noise.

 

The Doctor turned to dig for his coat, riffling through his pockets until his fingers closed around smooth metal.

 

This time, when she said his name, there was a considerable edge of frustration to her voice. "Doctor!"

 

The Doctor spun back around to find River glowering at him, incredulous, even as she fought to catch her breath. He held up his prize and watched her eyes darken as he stood and crossed the space between them.

 

River smirked, one hand on her naked hip, but her voice was still low and breathless. "For you or me?"

 

"You." His voice was low to match hers, and he held River's eyes while she swallowed and nodded.

 

"All right."

 

His pulse thundered in his ears. Giddy, the Doctor glanced around. There was nothing here and their bedroom was too far... He closed his fingers around River's wrist and tugged her with him toward the console.

 

River obligingly let him twist them around and press her back into it, arching up on her tiptoes as he lifted her arms, snapping one cuff against her wrist before looping it over the bar below the scanner and securing the other.

 

He stepped back to admire her, just for a minute. Splayed out over the console, muscles taut as she balanced, skin flushed and marked, eyes heavy-lidded with desire - _beautiful._

 

"Well, thank you sweetie, but I do hope you're going to _do_ something," River tugged at the handcuffs, "it's not nice to tie a girl up and just tease."

 

Not that she hadn't done the same to him a hundred times. Usually he was the one at River's mercy - well, he was always at her mercy anyway, but at least he wasn't the one handcuffed to the railing this time. But he'd never had River's patience - especially not when she looked like that. Besides, he had far better plans to make up for four hours than just looking.

 

The Doctor stepped forward for another kiss, his knee nudging River's thighs apart as she poured her need into his mouth, her tongue thrusting against his own as their teeth clashed.

 

He couldn't keep his hands off River's body, but this time he splayed them around her tiny waist, lifting her enough so that she could scoot back onto the console and let her legs fall apart. She moaned against his lips when his hand slid down to her curls, fingertips just brushing over her clit before dipping lower. He parted her folds, fingers just glancing through the wetness waiting there, and pulling back when River arched her hips, demanding more. He teased with light strokes while River kissed him breathless.

 

The Doctor stepped back completely.

 

River cursed, straining toward him and looking like she was very much regretting ever agreeing to the handcuffs. "God, sweetie. Just fuck me already. Please."

 

"The magic words," the Doctor teased before dropping to his knees, draping River's thighs over his shoulders and burying his face between them.

 

The taste and scent of River bloomed across his tongue, overwhelming, hot and dark with her pleading. River's thighs quivered as he ran his tongue across her in long, broad strokes. He lapped at her until she keened, and then he slid his tongue inside her.

 

He pressed River's legs back, fingers digging in as he opened her up and devoured her. Her skin was hot and slick and needy and her muscles pulsed against his tongue. Above him, River cursed between moans, her vocabulary increasingly creative and diverse.

 

The Doctor chuckled, his fingers tripping over themselves to press and rub at her swollen clit, and River screamed. The Doctor watched her come apart through heavy eyes, gathering up the taste of her pleasure on his tongue until she whimpered, over-sensitive.

 

He pulled back regretfully, wiping his hand across his mouth and watching River come down. It was always spectacular, watching her give herself over so completely to pleasure. After all this time, he still found himself awed that he was the one lucky enough to touch her and have her and see her like this.

 

River's eyes raked across him, her voice slightly hoarse, "Come up here, Doctor."

 

He acquiesced easily, sliding up between her legs until she could lick at his chin and lips and thrust her tongue greedily into his mouth - possessively sucking back the taste of herself off his tongue. He swayed closer to her, caught under River's thrall, and his cock, hard and aching again, brushed against her.

 

The Doctor groaned, pressing into her harder, and River arched against him, her legs wrapping around him like a vice. He gathered her up in his arms, his sticky fingers tracing the sweat dripping along her spine. His forehead rested against hers as they lost and caught their breath over and over again between frantic kisses. "River - I - _fuck._ "

 

River tilted her hips up until her slick sex brushed over the head of his cock. "Yes."

 

It never mattered who was handcuffed - River always got her way. Her legs tightened around him and the Doctor shifted with her movements until his cock sunk into the wet heat of her in one slow, blissful thrust.

 

One of his hands came down to grip a piece of the console and support their weight, his other wrapped around River, pulling her closer with every stroke. River let her head fall back, hands wrapped firmly around the scanner. The Doctor ducked his head to mouth kisses across her throat and chest, chasing the beads of sweat blooming there as they rocked faster together.

 

River was loud, her voice ringing out curses and strangled screams, urging him on with both. "Harder - fuck, Doctor - just there - _yes_ ," across whimpered gasps and at least three languages.

 

All her soft curves melted into the hard angles of this body until they were one being, caught gasping in the struggle for pleasure. His forehead pressed back against River's, hips snapping forward, desperate to get closer. Her mind opened against his in a riot of feeling, and they were twisted up into one existence, sense and pleasure cycling in an infinite loop between them until they were seeing each other through two sets of eyes, whispering promises and demands and pleas without ever making a sound.

 

They fell apart together, the waves of ecstasy rolling over them with a crushing intensity - supernovas exploding across their shared consciousness.

 

Slowly, the TARDIS filtered back in, the mental doors starting to heave and shutter closed. He felt River kiss him, slow and lingering until the last connection severed and he was left in his own mind again.

 

He slumped forward against River, sticky and spent. The inevitable sense of loss crept through him, aching and lonely. They could never touch one another's minds for long - too many secrets waiting behind closed doors, too many mysteries left unsolved. But the moments that they could - oh, how they blazed like sunshine across his memories.

 

River shifted against him, nudging him softly, and the Doctor forced his eyes open. River arched one eyebrow, though her expression was still languid and soft. "Planning on keeping me like this permanently, Doctor?"

 

"Oh. Right!" He blushed and scrambled off of her, hastily pressing his thumbs to the sensors that unlocked the handcuffs. He ran his hands nervously across the red rings at River's wrists, and in soothing strokes across her arms as he brought them down. He pressed a soft, apologetic kiss to the underside of each wrist before releasing them.

 

River hopped off the console and pressed herself willingly into his arms for a too-brief second before pulling away. "I'm fine, sweetie, stop fussing."

 

He caught River's hand lightly in his, tugging her back into him. "Just fine?!"

 

River hummed thoughtfully, a smile tugging at her lips. "Awed by your sexual prowess?"

 

The Doctor huffed, fingers tickling across her ribs. "Oi - rude! No teasing while we're naked!"

 

"Oh, but you blush so prettily _all over_ ," River leered.

 

"River!"

 

She ducked out of his grasp and took off, laughing and in the nude, through the TARDIS. The Doctor followed after her without a thought, chasing the glorious sound of her laughter all the way back to their bedroom.

 

They still had more than three hours to make up for, after all.

 

...

 

As soon as the TARDIS door shut behind River - fully clothed, entirely smug, and back in her cell safely before the next morning - the Doctor felt her absence settle over him, a crushing, opaque cloud. What were the odds of them ever being this linear again? The calculations ran through his head unbidden. _Astronomically small._ They would never have this again. It was impossible.

 

The Doctor was throwing the TARDIS into reverse even before they hit the vortex.

 

He pulled the door open and popped his head out, hearts pounding in his ears. "I was just thinking - do you suppose there's a Persia Ten?"

 

River stood frozen in the middle of her cell, gaping at him. "I've no idea."

 

He grinned at her. "Fancy finding out?"

 

River was flying through the doorway almost before he could step back to invite her in.

 

Maybe it was just _almost impossible_ then.


End file.
